Richard Wright, keyboardist of Pink Floyd, has passed away.

And as I settle down to a few hours of writing it’s only fitting that Dark Side Of The Moon gets played.

For the next few days you can hear the first episode of I Am Legend by Richard Matheson on BBC Radio 7.  So far they’re up to episode four.

Go there and listen to the story that the film should have been.

A story much more sophisticated than the film ever was…

Wow.  Last night was a whole bag of Prog-related madness.

First of we had Frost*.

They don’t do anything you haven’t heard in prog before.  But.  They do it very well.

I hadn’t heard them much before last night, just a few tracks played at Neil’s the night before, and they played a blinder.  I advise everyone, and I mean EVERYONE, to give them a try.  Tracks are available on their myspace page and there’s some tomfoolery on youtube.

And then came Spock’s Beard.  And they rocked the place down.

My gig experience is very much like this: rarely is the support band any good, and if they are then the main band often aren’t.  That’s not a general rule,  but it’s the way I’ve experienced it.

This was different.  The Beard rocked.  They played a lot of recent songs that I wasn’t to up on but they did a fantastic job.

So, there you go.

Heh.

Saturday night saw myself, Edgy and Skiv attending Barfly, easily the crappiest venue in Glasgow, to watch the Rapcore wonders called Senser.

Wonderful.

To put this in perspective, Edgy and I were into Senser back in ‘93/94 on the back of the Eject single and the album Stacked Up.  But I had never seen them live.

So comes the chance when the Edgemeister and I see that they’ve reformed and are playing in Glasgow!

It was a good night, with the band on after a few support acts who were mostly forgettable.

And while they played a fair selection of stuff I didn’t recognise, they DID play Eject, Age of Panic, Switch and No Comply which justified the price of the ticket alone.

Ah, to be easily pleased.

Incommunicado - Marillion

“I’m a rootin-tootin cowboy, the Peter Pan, the street credibility,

Always taking the point with the dawn patrol fraternity.”

mrBen was here this evening and we were discussing the whole podcasting/audiobook thing.

Actually, that’s not strictly true.  We already had that conversation and had moved on to fixing up some microphones and seeing what it actually sounded like.  We recorded my telling of a story and although I’m more used to it now, I thought I sounded like a wet fart escaping from a bag.

Apparently everyone feels the same way once you hear your own voice played back to you.  Or maybe my voice actually sounds like a wet fart escaping from a bag…

So, we used Audacity for the recording.  Had to use the Windows version as there was a known bug with the software and my Audigy sound card in Linux.  Shame.

But it wasn’t an altogether terrible experience.  Still have the mic and the mixing desk here, much to Ruthy’s dismay, and I’ll play with it some more to get a bit more comfortable with it.

Apparently so.

To feed my ongoing and unexplainable Popcorn habit, I have been listening to this.

And I thought that this was my final word on the subject.

Remember the cheezy song Popcorn? Recently done to death by the Crazy “this must die” Frog?

Well, just head over to YouTube to find the Original Version by a guy called Gershon Kingsley. It was originally on his album, Music to Moog By.

This is too cool. I’ll have to find a copy of the album from somewhere…

< edit>The You Tube version has been pulled.  Swines!

However, if you go here you can find loads of Popcorn related goodness and a page with loads of samples of versions performed over the years.< /edit>

Really.

Their album Black Holes And Revelations is easily a soundtrack for a sprawling Science Fiction intergalactic epic.

I’m not much of a fan normally (their not being prog) but they do rock.

If anyone has any suggestions for any other particular music to write to I’d appreciate it.

Three old guys and their live backing band.

Two hours of music chosen from a career spanning 40 years.

Different Class.

During the first half of the gig they rattled through plenty of quality tunes including my mum’s favoutite (for she was there with me), “Never Comes The Day”.

After the half time beer break they dove straight in to a selection of my favourite Moody tunes: Forever Autumn, Higher and Higher, I’m Just a Singer (In a Rock And Roll Band), Question and, of course, Nights In White Satin.

The Moody Blues are, without a doubt, one of the finest bands still playing today.

Messers Hayward, Lodge and Edge are three of the best musicians I have ever had the pleasure to see live and it’s great to know that after all these years that they’re still doing what they’re good at.

And before I forget, during the intermission I got talking to an American guy who had come over from the States for the day JUST for the concert. If that isn’t dedication, I don’t know what is.